How to Butcher a Duck

How to Butcher a Duck

I raise my own poultry for meat because I don’t like to support the inhumane conditions of factory farms. I also like to know where my food comes from. I’m sharing this post for those who would like to process their own ducks for meat.

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Getting Started

To butcher your duck, you will follow the same process for Butchering a Chicken or a Turkey. I find that ducks are cuter and a bit more intelligent than chickens, and it was harder to kill them. In this way I found the process to be similar to killing a turkey. If you would like to read more about how I prepare myself mentally for this process, check out my post How to Prepare for Fall Butchering.

What You Will Need:

sharp paring knives

container of bleach water for sanitizing

hatchet or ax

container for offal

scalding pot and a means for heating it (I use an electric burner, but a propane burner works well too)

a table is very helpful

pot or large bowl for carcass

ice or refrigerator for chilling carcass

For the newbie butcher, I would suggest that you catch your ducks the night before and put them in a cage or stall with water but no food. This will help clear out the digestive system so it is less likely that feces will leak out onto the meat.

Killing Your Duck

There are several ways to dispatch your bird. Some people prefer to make a small incision on each side of the neck, cutting the main artery and bleeding the bird to death. Others use a sharp pick or knife inserted into the bird’s mouth and then into the brain. I prefer to decapitate the bird with my hatchet or ax. I feel it is fast, efficient, and humane. It doesn’t look pretty and some people feel that bleeding the bird to death drains more blood from their carcass. I have never had a problem with excessive amounts of blood in the carcass and this method works well for me.

I use an old feed bag with a hole cut in one corner to hold the duck still while I kill it. The duck’s head is poked through the hole, allowing me to gather up the bag and hold it around the feet. This prevents the animal from moving and messing up the decapitation. When I was still new at this I did have a few botched decapitations and needed to chop twice. If this happens, get over it and make the second chop as quickly as you can to prevent any more suffering than necessary.

Dispatching the duck.

Once your duck is dead, the rest is pretty easy. You want to work quickly and keep your table and tools clean to prevent the growth of bacteria on the meat. I keep a hose with a shut off valve at the ready to wash the carcass, table, and knife.

When the bird has bled out and stops flapping (don’t worry, it can’t feel anything and is dead once the spinal column is severed) give it a good hosing down. Wash the feet and press down on the abdomen while rinsing with the hose to force any feces in the vent out and wash it away.

Washing the carcass.

Plucking vs Skinning

At this point you will either scald and pluck the bird or skin it. I chose to skin these ducks because they were about 5 months old and are very difficult to pluck at that age. The best age to butcher your ducks, for ease of plucking, is at 7 to 8 weeks old. If you choose to pluck them, you will need to dunk the carcass into scalding hot water (145-150 degrees F) for about one minute. Ducks are much harder to pluck than chickens. For the cleanest carcass, I recommend using Duck Wax to remove all of the downy feathers. For photos of the scalding process, check out my post How to Butcher a Chicken…I give a more detailed description there.

I’ve got my ducks in a row.

If you choose to skin your ducks you won’t have the skin and fat on the carcass to keep the meat juicy when you cook it. Leaving the skin on also gives you the option of saving the duck fat for rendering. I decided I’d rather have a leaner meat and spend less time on the processing this time.

Skinning a duck.

To skin your bird, start at the neck and slip the knife under the skin where you removed the head. Lift the skin and slice through it along the belly, working your way toward the tail end. Pull the skin back and use the knife to separate the skin from the meat as you work your way around the whole bird. I remove the end of the wings rather than mess around with trying to pull the feathers out. There’s no meat there anyway. The back, wings and legs are the toughest parts to skin.

Disemboweling

Once you have the carcass skinned or plucked, you’re ready to start disemboweling. Use your knife to cut around the vent, taking care not to puncture the intestines. Start on the belly side, between the rib cage and the vent and make a shallow incision into the flesh.

Use your fingers to pull this open, pulling the meat out and away from the intestines. This will allow you to slip the knife into the incision and slice around the vent without cutting into the innards. Using your fingers, pinch the vent shut and pull the intestines out and away from the carcass to prevent spilling the contents on the meat.

Be careful not to spill the contents of the intestines when you pull them out.

The gizzard will be attached to the other end of the intestines. You’ll need to stuff your hand into the body cavity to pull it out. You will most likely pull out the gizzard, liver, and gall bladder in one big mess.

The dark colored thing in the middle is filled with nasty green bile.

Do your best not to rupture the green gall bladder attached to the liver. You will want to cut this green sack of bile off along with a small portion of the liver to prevent getting bile on the liver.

Next, you should find the heart and possibly the crop and trachea. The crop usually pulls away from the gizzard and liver and may be removed from the neck area. The lungs are embedded in the rib cage and are a bit harder to pull out. You will need to sweep your fingers between the ribs and pull the tissue out.

Save the heart or feed to your chickens.

If you don’t like eating the gizzard, heart, and liver, cook them up and feed them to your pets or your chickens. The gizzard will need to be cut open, cleaned out and the yellow lining peeled away before cooking. For photos of this process, check out my post How to Butcher a Chicken…I give a more detailed description there.

Remove the neck and feet by cutting through the ligaments that hold the bones together at the joints rather than trying to cut through bone. That will just dull your knife and put your fingers at risk.

Wash the carcass thoroughly and chill as quickly as you can to prevent bacterial growth. If you plan to cook your duck rather than preserve it, let it sit in the refrigerator for 24 hours so the muscle tissue will be tender. Cooking the same day will make the bird tough. If you are freezing your ducks, you can wrap them and freeze immediately. Remove the bird from the freezer two or three days before you plan to cook it and allow it to thaw completely in the refrigerator before cooking. This will make a much more tender bird.

Ready for the freezer. Use vacuum sealer bags to prevent freezer burn.

Tips:

Always sharpen your knives before you get started. A dull knife will make the job much more difficult and dangerous. You should take a moment between each bird to sharpen your knife again.

I keep a small bucket or container of bleach water on my table to clean my hands and knives in between birds, or in case feces spills on the meat. Rinse with the beach water then cold water from your hose.

If you are butchering in warm weather, keep a cooler full of ice to put your dressed birds in to chill quickly.

In the fall, try to pick a very cool day to process your birds. Warm fall days are prime hunting times for yellow jackets. They will swarm around the innards and carcasses, looking for an easy meal.

Have at least one or two helpers, if possible. You can set up an assembly line if you have several birds to process, making the job go much faster.

The first time I butchered a chicken, it took me about 40 minutes. Now it takes about 20 minutes for each bird. Allow yourself plenty of time to set up and get everything you need ready to go.

A big pot of water will take quite awhile to reach 145-150 degrees Fahrenheit. Get the pot of water on the burner first, then go about your other preparations.

You might think that you can’t kill your duck, chicken, or turkey. It is a tough thing to do, if you’ve never butchered an animal before. If you have gone hunting and think that you’ll have no problem with this, just keep in mind that there is a big difference between pulling a trigger from a distance and chopping a head off up close and personal. You can do if you put your mind to it. It does get easier, but I don’t think I will ever feel good about it. However, I know that this is a lot better than eating meat from animals that were raised and killed under inhumane conditions.

Are you planning to butcher a duck? Is this your first time? I’m always interested in hearing about how other people process their poultry!

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109 comments on “How to Butcher a Duck”

This makes me so sad …… I would think it’s more humane to slit the throat, imagine your head being completely chopped off, plus it gets rid of the blood. and don’t put the poor baby in a bag, it’ll make him even more scared… just sing and stroke him for a bit and after flapping around he should calm down and realize what’s happening, and then go peacefully, that’s what usually happens for me.

So, I’m new to processing ducks. We’ve processed chickens, rabbits, & turkeys. We have peeking. Is there a preferred age to process @ or before? I would like tender cooking short time. With rabbits there are fryers, 3mths. They cook up tender & fast. Then there are culls. They are the older rabbits & are better used in stews or cooked several hours, they are tough. Is there any difference between the males & females?What is your reccom?

Thank you for the information! My wife, mother-in-law, and I successfully killed and cleaned two of our ducks. Your instructions made it very straightforward and it wasn’t nearly as messy as anticipated. Thank you for presenting this with simplicity and precision, and in spite of the naysayers.

I use dawn dish soap in the boiling water dunk the ducks in for one minute the dish soap breaker through the build up on their feathers making it easier to pluck. Have been doing it for a long time with no issues

Please accept my thanks for your article. Tonight was the first bird that I’ve processed, after a drake became impaired and then bullied by my flock.

The steps that you wrote were very clear, yet concise, and allowed me not to have to refer to my phone after each part. I also can see your meaning on the loss of fat, from skinning, and will take on plucking at another time.

It gave me a deeper appreciation for the entirety, which you also addressed well in your comments.

Now I just need to look up good skinless recipes, to better honor the sacrifice. As you state, it’s one thing to pull a trigger, quite another to be that close.

I’m in tears right now. How disgusting that you think this is worth a good meal. Wow. It’s better than a factory but still so cruel and mean. The poor birds couldn’t finish their lives because you wanted a snack. So sad.

I did not want a ‘snack’…I was feeding my family a meal (actually 2 or 3 meals). If you feel that living a vegetarian lifestyle means that you are not responsible for the deaths of any animals, please read the following article…

This is a complicated issue. I do not judge others for their lifestyle choices. My family eats much less meat than the average American. We eat many meat free meals and I understand what factory farming is doing to our environment and the suffering that it causes. I do this because I don’t want to support that industry.

Thank-you soo much for this info. I have 7 ducks, 4 of them are drakes. I have been putting off butchering my males for a long time dispite how aggressive they have been to my females. I raise ducks for the eggs not for meat. Since I have invest so much into my males it is worth having a duck dinner from my home than buying a processed duck from the grocery store. I hope I can get up the nerve to do what I need to do. Thanks again. Great article!

It wasn’t for you Lisa. I was trying to reply to Becca b. I can be a little salty sometimes. I do appreciate very much the knowledge and experience you are sharing here. I have some ducks I’m going to butcher soon and needed to take a gander at your wisdom… sorry about the pun. I do have one situation that maybe you could speak to as well. I have 6 ducks, 3 males 3 females and a small pond the size of a little kiddie pool that I built. The ducks are terrified of it and they won’t go in it. There’s nothing wrong with it. Have you ever seen anything like that?

I haven’t had ducks that were afraid of water. Have you tried giving them smaller tubs of water and work your way up to the pond? You might also try putting a hose with running water so that it trickles into the pond to pique their interest. Hope this helps!

so many haters and trolls like Becca in this world…Becca you are the problem here, but you probably do not even know it. Of course like most trolls she is probably on to the next hateful comment, so for the rest of you…keep eating meat. God didn’t give us ducks just to look at. If he didn’t want us to eat them, they wouldn’t be so delicious.

Hi Dr. Dan…I think that there are quite a few people who believe that their perspective is the only correct way to view the world. This belief is very misguided.

To be honest, I have no problem with anyone being vegetarian or vegan. I do, however, have a problem with people telling me I’m a horrible person for raising my own animals for meat and then processing them as humanely as I am able. And I have a problem with the ‘holier than thou’ attitude that militant vegans sometimes have.

I have had to delete comments and block several militant vegans who told me that I should be killed the way that I kill my poultry. So Becca’s comment is actually pretty mild in comparison and I decided to leave it because I do feel that she has a right to voice her opinion in a socially acceptable way. Hopefully she read the article that I linked to, because it explains how animals are killed in the process of raising vegetarian foods.

We also have an acre and are trying to become fully self sustaining, too, so you are an inspiration. We are raising chickens, ducks and turkeys for eggs and meat. After trying to pluck them by hand and also trying to pluck them using our handy dandy chicken plucker machine (love that thing!) we decided just to skin our ducks, too, because it’s so much easier.

Hi Giovanni,
Michelle may not get your question because her comment was left some time ago. So I will share with you how I do this. Basically, I make a pot of duck meat with gravy…just like you would do with chicken gravy for biscuits.

I use left over duck from making a roast duck. I pick all of the meat off of the bones. Then the bones go into a pot with enough water to just barely cover them. I put in a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar to help leach nutrients from the bones and then put the pot on high…bring to a boil, then turn down and simmer for about an hour. Allow to cool enough to pour the contents through a sieve to separate the broth and bones.

I pick over the bones again to pull any remaining meat off (allow them to cool so you can handle). All of the meat goes into the broth, and this all goes back into the pot on the stove top. Reserve 1 or 2 cups of the broth.

In a separate bowl mix up some plain white flour or corn starch with some salt and seasonings…I like sage or poultry seasoning, pepper, garlic powder and a pinch of turmeric. Add a little bit of broth and mix to make a paste, add more broth and mix…the same way you would to make gravy…until you have a thin ‘gruel’ with no lumps. Set aside.

Bring the pot back to a low boil. Slowly add the flour and broth mix and stir. Bring back to a boil and stir until it thickens. When it is thick, turn off heat and pour this duck meat and gravy mixture over a hot bed of egg noodles.

The amount of flour or cornstarch will depend on how much broth you have…I just sort of eyeball the amounts. If the duck gravy doesn’t come out thick enough, make up a little more of the flour/broth mix and stir in as the pot boils.

You can add peas, corn, carrots, onions, garlic….or any other veggies you like. Just mix them into the pot with the broth and meat when you first start cooking (if they are already cooked you won’t need to cook the pot longer, if they are raw you will need to cook longer).

Hi Lisa, I have some ducks that I’ll be picking up this weekend to process for my dog’s. I plan to feed the heads as well but I’m not sure how to get the feathers off, would scalding accomplish that? Thanks for any feedback. Excellent post, I’ll be using your tips soon!

Hi Jody,
If you dunk the heads in scalding water they should pluck just like the rest of the duck. In the wild, dogs would eat the feathers too…but I don’t know if it would cause digestive problems for a domestic dog. Also, from what I have read, just be sure that you do not cook the bones because it causes them to get hard and brittle, possibly causing injury to their digestive tract. Just in case you hadn’t read that.

Excellent info. I have killed chickens, but I have a dozen Muscovies and 5 of them are drakes, so with Canadian Thanksgiving next weekend, it is timely. I will try to pluck them – and I will get some wax beforehand. It seems like being well prepared will be key – buckets, hot and cold water, sharp knives, chopping block all laid out ahead of time.

Hi Dominic,
Best wishes with your duck butchering project. It makes a very big difference when you have everything ready before you start. There have been times when I realized that my knives weren’t sharp enough, and stopping to hone the blades was quite a nuisance. Plus, if you have to stop to fetch equipment, etc, it delays the chilling process, and that can lead to bacterial growth.

It sounds like you are well prepared! Let me know how your project turns out!
Lisa

I’m glad I found this blog. I have a one acre self-sufficient (for the most part) farm in Hawaii and I raise ducks. I have never been able to kill one because they are like pats, but I have to get over it. Why buy duck when you have a hundred+?

Want to talk self-suffiency?

And BTW, no one is placing cookies or using web beacons on mt browser. No worries.

Hi Tom,
It isn’t easy for me to kill ducks either. They are so comical to watch, and they seem a little bit more intelligent than the chickens. But I originally ordered them for meat ducks and I knew that 20 of them were more than I needed! But 100 is a lot! I bet they are building up some awesome soil for gardening. 🙂

Thanks for reading…I hope you are able to get the duck numbers down to the level you’d like. Best wishes!

PS – Although I continuously washed my hands and utensils & cutting surface with organic dish soap & hot water, I didn’t use chlorine bleach. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? I’ve stopped using chlorine bleach altogether, so I don’t have any.

First timer, and thank you so much for the tutorial. I really appreciate the photos; they helped tremendously. I plucked rather than skinned, so it took me a lonnnng time! Also, I had no helper and not the best equipment. Your advice is well taken now!
Do you process the feet?

Hi Annie,
Glad to help out! I’m thinking about trying the duck wax someone suggested…I have a black duck to process and I think it will help make the skin useable. I’ll let you all know how that works out when I try it. 🙂

I haven’t used the duck feet very many times, but I usually do use the chicken feet when making stock…it really gels up the stock nicely and I know it is more nutritious. I think I’ll try to use the feet next time too and see how it goes. That black duck I mentioned is a male that is a bit on the older side, so he will probably be going into some duck soup.

I also saw your question about the bleach and I am no longer using it unless things get really dirty. It really does some serious damage to my hands my the end of the day. And although I like knowing that I’m cleaning any e coli, etc off my hands, I decided to forgo the bleach. Now, if I open up a bird and there is a whole lot of feces that leaks out, then I do try to rinse things off really well and then do a quick dip in a very mild bleach solution, then rinse really well again. But this isn’t usually an issue and I am trying to be a little less obsessive, lol! So I think you are fine. Just wash up really well and be sure to cook your bird thoroughly!

Thanks for stopping by and sharing your first time experience with us…you rock!!!

If you purchase gloves from a pharmacy or Costco you won’t have to worry about getting bleach on your hands and then you will know that everything is very sanitary. You can buy 2 boxes which will last a long time for $20.00 or find a friend to purchase the other box.
Also duck wax makes the job of cleaning the carcass so much easier. You need a pot, turkey fryer works well, full of water that is specifically used for the wax. Add the wax, bring the water to boil and make sure you allow room for the duck otherwise it will overflow and then you have a huge mess. You want the wax hot but should be cooling otherwise it doesn’t stick as well to the duck. You also need cold ice water in a small garbage can, we line ours with a garbage bag so you can throw it away after processing a group of ducks. You dunk the duck in the ice water and you need at 3 coats to work really well, remove the wax, throw it back into the pot and heat and reuse. We normally wax several ducks at a time so you need to have enough wax in the pot to allow for this. Hope that helps.

I’m trying Muscovy’s for meat this year. I’ve never raised ducks before. I’m sort of planning to butcher at 12 weeks for the extra drakes and the females I decide to cull. I’m going to use a turkey lung flush valve that hooks to a garden hose so I get the insides as clean as possible.

For the initial processing I plan to do it the same as a wild harvested duck. Pluck as much as you can and then use duck wax to remove all the down. It leaves you with a nice clean carcass.
Paul

I use a product called duxwax that I bought at the local farm/fleet type store around duck season. I paid 11.99/3.25 lbs. I tried a search engine using duck wax, poultry wax, etc. the best I could find was http://www.cconly.com/processing/ez_duck_wax 10lb slabs for $38 with free shipping. That is enough for a dozen or so ducks without re-capturing the used wax.

You do lose a little wax with each bird but you can recapture most of the wax by remelting the feather/wax mix and filtering it. Most say to use cheese cloth, I just use a brand new small white T-shirt cut in half.

I get the water just hot enough to melt the wax, dip the bird, hold it up for maybe 10 seconds and re-dip another time or 2 and then plunge the bird into cold water and hold it there for 10 seconds or so to set the wax.

The wax will be a hard coating at this point. Crack it enough to get fingers under it and start ripping it off. Rinse off any remains bits of wax. I use this on Canadian Geese, one of my geese was banded 18 months as a gosling before I took it and the product worked just fine.;
Paul

I have some old chickens that are probably going when I slaughter the first few ducks in 5 weeks. I’ll try to remember to comment on how well the wax works for getting those long hairs the older chickens have underneath the feathers. Personally I want that skin and attached fat for the stock pot, If you feed your birds a clean GMO free feed and they free range, then that fat is not only flavor but healthy.
free range IMO means sometimes the old blue haired lady next door calls and complains that they are eating the fallen crab apples in her yard LOL

If you live outside city limits be prepared to deal with critters… but I have told the neighbors… if you can catch it you can keep it LOL. I did see that some peeps use plain paraffin, I have never tried it. I do know paraffin has a higher melting point so the water will have to be hotter before it melts.

Strangely enough I just stepped outside to bottle feed a couple of calves and 2 of my geldings came running by, unfortunately one of my year old muscovy drakes stepped out in front of them. He took one blow from a hoof, he looked at me like…what just happened? I walked over to him and tried to soothe him a bit and he quietly passed on. All this happened in a matter of 60 seconds. I would hate for him to go to waste. So I put him in a bag in the fridge. Now I’m trying to find the next best step. Sounds like skinning is the best way for an older bird. And maybe cook all day long in a crock pot or put in the freezer for a future meal? Thanks for any advice.

Hi Misti,
I’m sorry to hear about your duck…that’s very sad. You are very practical to use the meat. I would try to dress the carcass as soon as you are able, so the meat will be fresh. Skinning is easier than plucking. If you have a pressure cooker, that will make the meat the most tender.

My daughter sent me this link today. She has 5 Indian Runner ducks that are 1 year old that she want to harvest. Since they are ‘built’ a bit differently than meat ducks and are older, do you have any suggestions? I was raised in an Iowan farming family but I’ve never been the hand that harvested. The rest I can easily handle. I just want to be as humane as possible.Thank you for your feedback.

Hi luvmybag,
The only difference that I can see would be that the runner ducks will have less meat and, being older, the meat may be a bit tough. You can use the same method for killing that I use, or you can use a killing cone and bleed them out. I feel that one chop with an ax or hatchet is the most humane, but bleeding them out can be done humanely too.

After the ducks have been dressed, I would suggest cooking them in a pressure cooker, or pressure canning the meat, so that it will be nice and tender. Let me know how everything goes! Best wishes!

We use our older butchered chickens for soup or cook them in the slow cooker with some water or broth and then use the meat in pot pies. Doesn’t taste tough at all. I’m sure you could do the same with duck meat.

I loved your article; it was much needed. We will be killing our ducks in eight weeks and it will be our first time. I got them for $.25 each and we have 31 of them so it’s our only option for them to have a good humane life and death. I wish someone was here with us who has done it before to help us but that’s not the case. The best we have is your article which I’m sure you will read many times. Thank you again

Hi Cathy,
I’m glad that this is helpful…I know it isn’t easy, especially when you haven’t done it before. If I hadn’t helped my Dad butcher chickens when I was a kid, I think it would have been much more difficult to do. Even so, it still isn’t easy for me to kill an animal. I don’t think that ever gets easy and it probably shouldn’t.

You might might be able to get to know some people in your area who have poultry and butcher their own. They might let you watch while they process a bird. Maybe check on Craigslist? Best wishes!

Hi Rhonda,
I hope your processing went smoothly! Sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner. I’ve been tilling and planting my garden here. I have butchered many ducks much older than your drakes. It is a pain to get all the feathers and down off, so I usually skin them. They might be a tad bit tougher than the young ones, but you can grind the meat, or pressure can them if they are tough. Remember to chill overnight so they will be more tender too. Best wishes!

Thanks for all your info and the questions and answers, I need info, as we are killing our first crop of young muskovies ducks tomorrow, not looking forward to it, any more info would be appreciated both drake boys they are 5 months old not to old I hope, like the other man from Australia I have been fighting the pythons just to raise our young ducklings resorted to bringing them in the house while still young all good now have got 17 coming up nicely let you know how we go once again thanks for info:))

I use a pruning lopper to decapitate the poultry. That eliminates the risk factor of missing with an axe or cleaver. Surprisingly, the ducks calmly allow me to put the loppers around their neck, and never flinch when I close the handles.

If you can do this quick enough, I guess it would work. I saw a lady try this once and I was horrified…it was definitely not humane the way she did it. I haven’t had many problems with missing now that I’ve had practice.

With ducks as well as chickens I have a block of wood with two nails driven in to it to hold the head still. Space them wider for ducks and of course narrower for chickens. Apply a little tension and they can not pull away. Your misses will go away do to bird movement.

Hi Lisa
I want to thank you for your thoughtful and practical guide to butchering ducks ,we have a lame female,who sadly after 3 weeks of me trying to care for her is no better ,and I now feel I need to take this final step,we are miles a way in Caithness ,Scotland .But I feel we all come together in our love for animals.
Sue

Hi Sue,
I’m sorry to hear about your duck. 🙁 I’m happy to provide this information for folks who need it and I’m glad that it is helpful.

Have you checked to see if your duck has bumble foot? I had a duck that had bumble foot and I was able to perform minor surgery on her foot to clean out the infection. She recovered and was able to walk well again after a couple of weeks. But sometimes it really is the most humane thing to put them down, and why not honor their life by using the meat?!

I just wanted to tell you that this article was the first one that came up when I searched for processing tips. I want to thank you for writing such an honest and direct how-to. I also appreciate the small bits of advice you give, such as preparing for yellow jackets, which are a menace where I live.

I have a small hobby farm, and I’m raising chickens and rabbits. The rabbits are a similarly challenging animal to process, and I could easily relate to what you were saying about getting better at it, but never feeling good about it. Today, I ordered my first 10 Welsh Harlequin ducklings. I’ll be going to pick them up in person. But I chose ducks for both egg production and meat. I’m not looking forward to processing day, but I’m much more prepared to handle it after having read your bog. I’ll definitely be following along with other posts.

Hi Rob,
Thanks so much for the compliment! I sure do appreciate hearing the feedback. 🙂 It sounds like you are doing a great job on your Gentleman’s Farm! I have gotten to the point where I don’t take half an hour to dispatch an animal, because I know that will just prolong their fear and my mental discomfort. But I don’t think that I will ever stop feeling bad for the animals either.

Let me know how you like the Welsh Harlequin ducks. I love to read about other people’s animals. 🙂 Since we only have 1 acre, I’m limited on how many breeds and species I can keep. So I live vicariously through others!

Thanks so much for reading and taking the time to leave comments…I love to hear what other homesteaders are up to. 🙂

Thanks for the information, I have been killing ducks for the table for a while now but i still like to check for better ways to slautghter humanely. The feed bag is a great idea as just hanging on to such a large bird is a bit difficult, i have about 30 Muskovies and they are completly free range and only come to the shed for feed (and to be caught). We are maintaining our numbers as the ducks breed quite well but the Goana’s and snakes take most of them. I have 7 ducklings in the shed at the moment about 4 days old. this will replace my numbers back up to 30.

Thats right Lisa I live on The Sarina range just 40 min out of Mackay. Muskovies are a treat to watch, very good and fierce mothers. Drakes when young go at Mating like a bull at a gate but when they get older they aquire manners and are very romantic , they talk they head bob and take there time. A nice big bird that can handle itself.

They are pretty good moms. I’ve never seen one lay without the intent to hatch, and they seem to have around 3 clutches of eggs each summer, of around 10 to 15 eggs at a time. I gross an average of 8 to a10 from each clutch

Thanks for great tutorial! I am getting my head around the idea that I should have only ordered female ducks. My beautiful five month old Rouen drake is too aggressive for the littler ladies and eats a LOT! Think he may be going to freezer camp soon….
Yours is the best how-to I’ve seen yet, but wanted to share a tip someone else mentioned: if you put the already butchered birds and the offal, into two separate buckets of cool water, you will greatly reduce the yellow jacket problem.

Hi Sharon,
Thanks! When I ordered ducks, they didn’t give the option of sexed ducklings. I haven’t seen hatcheries that do…but then, I haven’t checked around for more info.

Your drake is in his prime right now and may seem very aggressive. You do want to be careful that he isn’t injuring his ladies, but sometimes what seems like unacceptable behavior to us is actually ok for the ducks. You might be right that he needs to be processed, if you aren’t hoping for babies in the spring.

I have been trying to do all of my butchering in cool weather when the yellow jackets aren’t a problem…but this is a very good tip! Thanks so much for sharing!

I ordered my birds from Metzer Farms Hatchery in Gonzales, CA, which is just down the road. They do sex their birds for an additional $1.50 per bird. The other large hatcheries I looked into, followed a similar sexing/pricing policy, but you have to ask. Since I knew I wanted at least 5 hens, I had them sex 5 for me, which are banded with gender-specific bands for easy identification. The other birds are straight run.

Just rereading your posts on duck butchering and wanted to suggest next time you save the fat not give it to the lucky dog, haha. Duck fat is a real treasure! You can render it in a sauce pot over low heat or in the oven (or save your fat in the freezer until you have a good quantity to do all at once. Strain and pour into a mason jar & keep in fridge or freezer for storage. It is an all natural non GMO fat (unlike canola and corn oil) and now the experts are finding animal fat is much better for us than they used to think. I save my duck, goose & chicken fat rendered down for all kinds of kitchen cooking. Our Amish friends always save their chicken fat for popping popcorn – I tried it and its spectacular the flavor it adds.

Great suggestion, Linda! I’ve actually been thinking about this. I have put off rendering the duck fat because we have a huge tub of lard in the fridge that I use in place of shortening. We use it so slowly that I haven’t been very proactive about saving the duck fat. But I think I need to start because we are slowly working toward eating mostly just the poultry we raise and getting away from ordering beef and pork from local farmers. Although I do want to support them, I find I don’t really enjoy beef so much these days and the pork is raised with regular GMO corn…so I want to get away from that too.

Thanks for the idea…it’s been rolling around in my noggin for a while too!

Thank you for these very helpful instructions. My neighbour left a fresh wild duck on my back door handle (previous trout hadn’t fazed me, then I’d tackled the pheasant successfully, so he must think I’m up for anything). It hung in our shed for 2 cold nights and I was surprised to find it plucked quite easily without scalding. Are wild ducks supposed to be easier? Followed your instructions and all well – in the freezer now though seemed to be missing a gall bladder! Michelle, Leicester, UK

Hi Michelle,
How nice of your neighbor! I have never left a duck to sit for any length of time before plucking, perhaps this helps release the feathers more easily. I also have not had the opportunity to try a wild duck…so I can only guess at the answer to whether or not a wild duck is easier to pluck. It may vary a bit depending on breed and diet…I’m not sure. I’m glad that you were able to tackle the dressing with no problems after reading my instruction. 🙂 Sometimes the gall bladder is small and this could depend on the diet of the bird too.
Thanks for writing from the UK! I love to hear from folks all over the world!

Hi Lisa. That’s good to know re the gall bladder. It is a Mallard and I read somewhere that yes, hanging can help losen feathers, as you suspect. My neighbour’s freezer is full so he’s promised more – so more practice to come! Happy New Year from England.

Lisa you did a very good job of explaining and showing step by step of butchering duck,thank you.Now I need help on cooking part ,some say meat is Creasy is this true and what to do to give it a better flavor.

Hi Bill,
Thank you! I have cooked the ducks both with and without the skin. I roasted a duck earlier this year with the skin on…using a roaster pan in the oven. I sliced up a lemon and laid the slices over the top of the duck before cooking. It was very tender and tasty…a little bit like the dark meat of a chicken. There was quite a bit of fat in the bottom of the pan, but I didn’t think that the meat tasted greasy.

I also slow cooked an older duck, with the skin removed, in a crock pot recently. It was also very tasty, but it was a little bit tough. Nothing wrong with the flavor, but I am wishing I took the time and effort to pluck these older ducks when I butchered them. I think that the meat would have been more tender.

Would love to know how you cook your ducks since they don’t have a skin. The skin does protect the meat from becoming dry, but again you don’t have all that fat to deal with either. Do you crockpot them?

Hi Linda,
I did use the crock pot. Because the duck was older, it was a tad bit tough…I might try making soup or stew with the next one.
Some people like to use the fat…it usually goes to the dog and the chickens at our house.

The Muscovies are doing well (only one baby survived from 3) but at least they all go into the henhouse at night – which is the real reason why they are surviving. The one baby has lost most of his yellow down and turning white like his parents. Thought they might lay more eggs & hatch but doesn’t look like it. Oh well, there is always hope for next spring to increase the flock.

I hope that little baby is a hen so you have more eggs in the spring! I’m sorry to hear that the other two didn’t survive, but I’m glad you were able to get them to go in at night. It’s so disheartening to lose them to predators.

Duck fat is highly valuable and the crispy duck skin on top of the meat is the only way you will ever find duck in a gourmet restaurant. On top of that we now know that healthy fats are great for your health… It should be plucked, regardless of difficulty.
That being said I’ve never done anything like this and it’s time to cull a few of my geese. I also have ducks but i got 3 geese and I only need 2 geese. Not sure If i can chop off their heads, man it sounds rough. I once killed a pet rat and it still bothers me today.

Hi Neil,
I have tried plucking with a number of ducks and just lost my patience. I’m actually trying to reduce my saturated fat intake because I, like some other people, really do need to be careful not to have too much of it in my diet.

I know that many people have recommended eating healthy fats, but it seems like the jury is out on how much.

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